Due to high load on the CPU and I.O maxing, I decided to change my apache2 config to worker+php-cgi+mod-cgi

These are the set of commands I issued:
1. apt-get -u install php5-cgi libapache2-mod-fcgid apache2-mpm-worker
2. a2dismod php5 (disable php5)
3. Enable the ‘actions‘ and ‘fcgid‘ Apache mods (e.g. a2enmod fcgid and a2enmod actions)
4. Edited /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fcgid.conf and bumped the “IPCCommTimeout” up to 60 from the default of 20
5. Created a /etc/apache2/conf.d/php-fcgid.conf file with the contents

<IfModule !mod_php4.c>
<IfModule !mod_php4_filter.c>
<IfModule !mod_php5.c>
<IfModule !mod_php5_filter.c>
<IfModule !mod_php5_hooks.c>
<IfModule mod_actions.c>
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
<IfModule mod_mime.c>
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
# Path to php.ini – defaults to /etc/phpX/cgi
DefaultInitEnv PHPRC=/etc/php5/cgi

# Number of PHP childs that will be launched. Leave undefined to let PHP decide.
#DefaultInitEnv PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN 3

# Maximum requests before a process is stopped and a new one is launched
#DefaultInitEnv PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS 5000

# Define a new handler "php-fcgi" for ".php" files, plus the action that must follow
AddHandler php-fcgi .php
Action php-fcgi /fcgi-bin/php-fcgi-wrapper

# Define the MIME-Type for ".php" files
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

# Define alias "/fcgi-bin/". The action above is using this value, which means that
# you could run another "php5-cgi" command by just changing this alias
Alias /fcgi-bin/ /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default/

# Turn on the fcgid-script handler for all files within the alias "/fcgi-bin/"
<Location /fcgi-bin/>
SetHandler fcgid-script
Options +ExecCGI
</Location>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>


6. create the directory which is chosen by the alias, and put in a symlink to the php5-cgi binary

# mkdir /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default
# ln -s /usr/bin/php5-cgi /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default/php-fcgi-wrapper

7. Restart Apache —

-------------------------------------------------------------

The wordpress site now is not opening and gives an internal failure:

The error log returns

"Invalid command 'php_value', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration"


What am I doing wrong?

Any help will be appreciated.

many thanks

Resolved it. There was a variable called php_value which was dynamically trying to set the php timeout in .htaccess.

Now the error is:
You don't have permission to access /fcgi-bin/php-fcgi-wrapper/index.php on this server.

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
---------------------------------------

Checking the error log:
Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default/php-fcgi-wrapper
---------------------------------------------

I went back and reissued the symbolic linkl creation:
mkdir /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default
# ln -s /usr/bin/php5-cgi /var/www/fcgi-bin.d/php5-default/php-fcgi-wrapper
-----------------------------------------------


Let me know if you can see anything wrong....

thanks again.

Hey fresbee,

Did you ever figure out what the issue was?

I too am getting the 403 Forbidden error client-side and the Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible error in the Apache log.

I call myself checking permissions, etc.

I got it working, but I pulled some info from a few other sites and mashed them up. Yep, not always a great idea, but it's something.

Here is what I have:

php-fcgid.conf

# Enable PHP in vhosts instead
#AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi .php
AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi

# Where to look for the php.ini file?
DefaultInitEnv PHPRC        "/etc/php5/cgi"

# Maximum requests a process handles before it is terminated
MaxRequestsPerProcess       1000

# Maximum number of PHP processes
MaxProcessCount             10

# Number of seconds of idle time before a process is terminated
IPCCommTimeout              240
IdleTimeout                 240

FCGIWrapper /usr/bin/php-cgi .php

My vhost file:

    <Directory /var/www/domain/www>
        <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml|ps)$">
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            Options +ExecCGI
        </FilesMatch>
    </Directory>

The FilesMatch part could be stripped out to leave:

    <Directory /var/www/domain/www>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            Options +ExecCGI
    </Directory>

I removed .fcgi from the AddHandler directive, as I don't plan on using files with that extension on this particular vhost, but added back you have:

    <Directory /var/www/domain/www>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi .php
            Options +ExecCGI
    </Directory>

References:

• Apache with fcgid: acceptable performance and better resource utilization
• How To Set Up Apache2 With mod_fcgid And PHP5 On Ubuntu 9.04